Using Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships to Bring Joy Back to Learning

Picture this… it’s 5 pm on a Thursday evening. Two high school students are in their school’s culinary lab, designing a menu for an event at the local arts center. They are creating a production schedule that will allow effective preparation, transportation, and service for over 100 guests within an established budget. After the event, they compile artifacts and reflect on how this experience supported their learning. Being able to accomplish such a task is impressive; what’s more impressive was that they took on the challenge by choice. 

Nicole is a high school junior living in a rural community. She has a passion for animals and science. As part of an innovative program at her school, Nicole engages in an internship at a local veterinary clinic. There, she applies content and durable skills while working collaboratively with a veterinarian. The experience provides the opportunity for her to earn clinical hours needed for her veterinary technician credential. The expression on her face when she talks about her learning says it all–it is pure joy. 

Then there’s Jordan, a fourth grader with a history of struggling in school. When given traditional assignments, Jordan often shuts down, pushes papers away, and becomes defiant. But during a science unit on energy, Jordan becomes a leader in the classroom. He collaborates with peers to build and test a model water wheel’s ability to produce energy, engages in a mining simulation, and even builds a solar car. Jordan demonstrates his learning through a performance assessment by making and supporting recommendations about the types of energy resources a person in his community should use. During this unit, Jordan is on task, contributing positively, and smiling.

In each vignette, students are finding joy in learning. The stories are examples of what is happening in schools across Wyoming through the Reimagine and Innovate the Delivery of Education (RIDE) pilot. This project is both unique and impactful. It represents a partnership among multiple invested parties, including the Governor’s Office, Department of Education, State Board of Education, Wyoming’s Superintendents Association, the University of Wyoming, and the Wyoming Community College Commission. The project supports districts wanting to increase the use of student-centered practices, while concurrently helping learners develop the skills outlined in Wyoming’s Profile of a Graduate. Each district is approaching the pilot in a unique way, aligned to their local context. The common focus is student-centered learning, and a byproduct has been increased joy for both learners and teachers. 

Why focus on happiness in school?

Coming out of the pandemic, schools have been focusing on making up for lost learning time and feeling pressure to raise test scores. Schools are also faced with students who, after learning from home, want more control around what, when, and how they learn. While restrictions on social interaction may be a memory, their impacts persist. At the same time, the skills that students need in order to achieve post-secondary success have changed. This creates a new set of challenges to address.

With the current focus on fidelity, test scores, and closing achievement gaps, it may feel like there is little time to infuse joy into learning. However, happiness has been found to be positively correlated with student motivation and academic achievement. Intentional focus on joy can even lead to deeper learning (Scoffham & Barnes, 2011). Schools across Wyoming are making this type of learning the norm; by focusing on relevance, rigor, and relationships, Wyoming educators are meeting learners’ needs while creating joy in the process.

Strategies for Bringing Joy into Learning

Relevance 

A common question students pose is, “Why do I need to learn this?” One strategy for bringing joy into learning is to focus on relevance. Research suggests that when students can make clear connections between learning targets and their ideas, interests, and passions, there is greater engagement and excitement (Ruiz-Alf & León, 2016). This goes beyond needing to learn something to be prepared for the next grade or standardized test. Focusing on relevance requires fundamental changes to instruction and assessment, with a shift from covering standards to applying knowledge in authentic situations to solve problems. When learners engage in experiences that connect new ideas and skills to their interests, the result is often joy and engagement.

Shared experiences can serve to create relevance in learning. This could involve watching an engaging video, identifying opportunities to address a local need, engaging in a compelling challenge, or visiting a location aligned to the intended learning. Elementary students in one Wyoming district got excited to learn about worms after taking a field trip to see composting in action. The students generated questions around how they could reap similar benefits by using worms at their school. They developed skills in science, language arts, social studies, mathematics, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. The experience led to students engaging in deeper research and sharing their learning with an authentic audience of local gardeners. Shared experiences not only help learners see relevance, but also create positive emotional experiences that can motivate learning. 

Another way to create relevance is to think more broadly about learning outcomes. When the goal moves beyond demonstrating standards to applying learning, opportunities present themselves. For example, a Wyoming social studies standard requires learners to explain how to participate in the political process. Rather than asking learners to explain different ways this can happen, one Wyoming high school educator challenged learners to identify an interesting local public policy problem and use their knowledge of the political process to affect change. This maintained the focus on learning about government while connecting to students’ interests because they were able to select a policy that was of personal importance.

Educators can also increase relevance when they allow learners to pose and answer their own questions. Having students develop their own questions about intended learning is one way to spark interest and create personal connections. For example, consider a middle school unit on chemical and physical reactions. The teacher poses the question, “Why do cookies change when they bake?” She allows students to generate multiple questions related to that focus. After generating those questions, she asks students to group their questions into categories or themes. Next, she asks students for questions related to specific areas of investigation she has planned. This helps frame the learning while connecting to students’ interests and wonderings. Teaching through questioning requires planning and thoughtful intent, as it is important that misconceptions are not reinforced. Helping learners ask and answer their own questions can increase motivation and joy, even within reluctant students. 

Rigor 

Finding the sweet spot of challenge is another way to infuse joy in learning. Video games provide an excellent example of this concept. The initial levels are typically simple. As players progress, the challenge grows. If the game stayed at the easiest levels, players would get bored and likely quit. If they started too difficult, players would likely quit. The key is to incrementally increase difficulty. 

This same principle holds true for learning in school. Scoffham and Barnes (2011) share the connection between happiness and deep engagement and suggest that teachers can create this condition by presenting authentic challenges for which students know they have the skills to succeed. This helps avoid both a lack of engagement due to boredom and students giving up because the task is too difficult. It is also reflective of Vygotsky’s research about the benefits of working within a student’s Zone of Proximal Development. Educators need to consider where the learning target falls along a continuum of understanding. What does a learner need to know before they can access this new idea? What will come next in terms of both academic content and durable skills? Knowing learners really well is critical to identifying the proper entry point for learning.

Making learning joyful also requires educators to consider what learners are doing in relation to the learning targets. A useful tool to support this process is the Hess Rigor Matrix. Dr. Hess took Bloom’s Taxonomy and looked at how it intersected with Webb’s Depth of Knowledge. The result is a set of tools that helps teachers determine what cognitive complexity might actually look like in practice (Hess, 2014). For example, being able to solve linear equations is a common learning outcome in Algebra 1 classes. But what if learners go beyond finding the values of variables, and use equations to make mathematical arguments about getting the best deal on a cell phone plan? Not only would there be increased relevance for most learners, but the level of cognitive complexity would also be significantly greater. 

Effective feedback practices are essential for reaching the sweet spot for rigor. Such practices allow learners to see where they are in relation to their goals, and helps guide them toward their next steps in learning. When done well, feedback can create positive emotional responses, allowing learners to make adjustments to reach goals or overcome challenges (Li et al., 2020). Conversely, feedback can also serve to negatively impact the teacher to student relationship if careful consideration is not paid to the manner in which it is provided. Feedback needs to build upon learner strengths while recognizing efforts as well as positive steps forward. For example, a Wyoming teacher worked with her students on a design thinking challenge to create an innovative, practical use for an outdoor space on campus. One student struggled significantly, trying to submit designs that had been found via internet searches rather than original ideas. Because this teacher was aware of the students’ strengths and needs, she was able to engage in a series of conferences with him, providing specific, actionable feedback. At the end, the student was able to generate an original idea and persevered in accomplishing the goal. Effective feedback was the key that helped the student succeed and engage with increasing rigor, creating both excitement and engagement in learning. 

Relationships

While relevance and rigor are important for bringing joy back to learning, both are insufficient without strong relationships. In a 2024 Kappan article, Peter Cookson reflects on the powerful impact authentic and affirming relationships can make. He describes the stark differences between schools with similar demographics located just a few blocks apart from one another, and how an inclusive climate where the whole child is cared for can create communities where all students thrive. Authentic, affirming, reciprocal relationships within a classroom are the foundation for successful learning. Through them, educators build trust, get to know learners, and set up environments where it is safe to take risks in learning. When communication between the teachers and learners is positive and encouraging, the critical relationships fundamental to high quality learning are strengthened (Li, et al., 2020). As one Wyoming educator shared, “Systems don’t work if people don’t care.”

Leveraging positive relationships to create joy in learning requires that educators reconsider the roles of teachers and students. No longer is the teacher holding the control and making all of the decisions. One teacher in the RIDE project described this shifting role as becoming a supportive project manager. She had to give more control to students to make decisions about how they learn, what they learn, and how they demonstrate what they know. She reflected on how this was challenging for both her and her students. Students who were used to complying with directions had difficulty handling the opportunities to make meaningful decisions without significant guidance. As the teacher, she had to fight the urge to rescue students when they struggled. She also had to be okay with not always knowing how learning might unfold. To successfully shift roles, students have to know themselves as learners and have opportunities to practice making impactful decisions about their learning. This requires strong mutual trust between students and teachers. 

Such relationships are also at the core of effective student-driven assessment practices. These can range from small celebrations of learning to student-led conferences or portfolio defenses. Regardless of the structure, learners collaborate with teachers to set goals and provide evidence of growth and achievement by reflecting on artifacts. It’s not about finished products; rather, the focus is on the learning process. When middle school teachers in one Wyoming district took this on for the first time, they realized that student-driven assessment created opportunities to teach global skills through content. Teachers across content areas collaborated with learners to build rubrics focused on creativity. The content and criteria for success were nonnegotiable, but learners had choice in how they demonstrated learning. Teachers reflected on how trust grew exponentially. While educators found the process “messy,” they saw how it shifted the focus from compliance and grades to real learning–and students actually enjoyed the assessment process.

Making Learning Fun

When experiences are tied to strong, positive emotional responses, people are more likely to remember them. Learning experiences are no different; this is what makes learning stick. Through RIDE, Wyoming educators are creating joy by leveraging student-centered practices. But bringing joy to learning doesn’t require a statewide initiative. It just takes a commitment to focusing on relevance, rigor, and relationships.


Dr. Kadie Wilson is a Senior Director for K-12 Systems with 2Revolutions. She has over 30 years of experience working in varied roles across K-12 public education, with a consistent commitment to challenging the status quo and transforming systems to become student-centered.


References:

Bauld, A. (2021,  May 11). Happy students are motivated students. Ed. Magazine. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/ed-magazine/21/05/happy-students-are-motivated-students

Hess, K. (2013). Cognitive  rigor in today;s classroom: Using a cognitive rigor matrix to advance complexity of thoughts. Measured Progress. Retrieved from https://www.asdn.org/wp-content/uploads/CCAP3010_Cognitive_Rigor_in_Todays_Classroom.pdf

Li, L., Gow, A. D. I., & Zhou, J. (2020). The role of positive emotions in education: A neuroscience perspective. Mind, Brain and Education: The Official Journal of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, 14(3), 220–234.

McLeod, S. (2024, August 9). Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/zone-of-proximal-development.html 

Ruiz-Alf, Z., &  León, J. (2016). The role of passion in education: A systematic review, Educational Research Review, 1173-188.

Scoffham, S., & Barnes, J. (2011). Happiness matters: towards a pedagogy of happiness and well‐being. The Curriculum Journal, 22(4), 535–548.

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